EVERY decade has its horse greats. In the 1980s, Jappeloup was one such icon - famous for his championship duels with Milton or his and Pierre Durand’s spectacular comeback at the Seoul Olympics, where, in gratitude, the Frenchman tied his gold medal to the horse’s breastplate, before their lap of honour.
The Seoul gold medal was one of many won by the distinctive dark-brown gelding, who was as popular with the man on the street in France as Boomerang was to the Irish public.
And unfashionably-bred, too, which adds to a common theme in these horse-of-a-lifetime stories: underdog appeal.
Before French farmer-breeders and studfarm owners embraced other continental bloodlines, Selle Français and Irish Sport Horse breeding closely mirrored each other, especially in a heavy reliance on thoroughbred bloodlines.
In fact, one of young Pierre Durand’s first successful Grand Prix and Nations Cup horses was the flaxen-maned chesnut thoroughbred stallion Laudanum, later a pillar of Bernard le Courtois’s Haras de Brullemail studfarm.
Laudanum is the damsire of Peter Eriksson’s 2008 Hong Kong Olympics and 2010 World Equestrian Games show jumping stallion Jaguar Mail, the sire of Austin O’Connor’s five-star eventing winner, Colorado Blue.
Eventing is hugely popular in south-west France, where Pierre, a native of Bordeaux, grew up. Pau, one of just seven five-star events in the eventing world, is the region’s flagship event.
After a bad fall, the 12-year-old Pierre was discouraged by his parents from continuing in the sport and instead switched to show jumping. His Olympic hero became Pierre Jonquères d’Oriola, who won individual gold with Lutteur at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Trot on
Trotter blood is not unusual in some French pedigrees. Here in Ireland, Edmund Simpson’s Zara’s Pride captured the public’s attention after the ex-trotter mare notched up a string of international successes with Peter Smyth. The 2004 Zagreb Grand Prix, a Samsung Nations Cup Series team win in Athens that same year, and a home-crowd win at Dublin were amongst their highlights.
Two decades previously, Pierre was not immediately enamoured when a local breeder, Henry Delage, brought a home-bred youngster to his yard. By the trotter Tyrol II and out of a thoroughbred mare named Vénérable, Jappeloup stood a mere 158cm.
With his genetics, he was simply a horse of two halves - a thoroughbred in front and a trotter behind the saddle and the young rider didn’t see much potential in him.
Similar to Marie Burke’s story last week, about suggesting to Willie Boland that the four-year-old Chipmount come back to her yard in a year’s time, Pierre made the same offer to the eager breeder.
Besides, the young Law student was busy with his studies. However, Delage persisted. At the end of a four-week trial the following summer, and although Pierre was still not won over by the fiery little horse, Jappeloup stayed.
It took until the national championships, two years later, when the first signs of brilliance appeared, and the precocious seven-year-old won the national title against the best in French show jumping.
LA mixed fortunes
As a lawyer, Pierre Durand was unusual on the international circuit, competing against full-time professional show jumping riders. Not that it mattered for the Olympics, as in 1984, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to allow professionals to compete at the Games.
The careers of several horses featured in this series will overlap, such as Jessica V and Jappeloup. Heidi Hauri and Jessica V’s recent story was a tale of Los Angeles Games triumph, as the Michael Kelly-bred mare won individual bronze for her Swiss rider. For Jappeloup and Durand, however, it was not their finest hour.
Grainy YouTube videos show that Jappeloup put in a half stride, stopped, and Durand sailed solo over the massive oxer, while the horse galloped loose around the arena. The sight of the deflated French anchorman walking back to the pocket, carrying Jappeloup’s bridle, is a potent image of how decades of best-laid plans and hopes can fall apart in an instant.
The French pair bounced back, though. McLain Ward is one of today’s sportspeople who knows the importance of a competitive mindset. Over 40 years ago, Pierre Durand was ahead of the pack when, after the Los Angeles disappointment, he started working on this aspect. Legendary Brazilian rider Nelson ‘Neco’ Pessoa also offered advice on tweaking his riding style.
The results paid dividends at the 1987 European championships in St Gallen.
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With the Irish tricolour in the background, Pierre Durand and the catlike Jappeloup soar over one of the Seoul Olympic fences
String of medals
When asked about the highlights of the Jappeloup years, Pierre first mentioned the various medals won by the French team.
“Over 10 years on the international circuit with Jappeloup, I experienced a great deal of emotion. There were failures and successes, but it was an exhilarating life.
“Among my most memorable moments were the team events, with 10 Nations Cup victories, including two in Aachen (1988, 1990), the bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and, as a crowning achievement, the team title at the 1988 World Championships. Each time, Jappeloup proved decisive,” he told The Irish Field.
“On an individual level, I remember our three World Cup podium finishes (1985, 1988, 1990), the World Championship in Aachen in 1986, our Olympic title in 1988 in the Olympic stadium in Seoul.
“And without forgetting what remains the most important to me, from a sporting point of view: our European championships title at St Gallen in 1987, after an epic duel with Milton and John [Whitaker].”
It was a historic day for France - the near-monopoly held by German and British riders was broken after Pierre Durand won his country’s first individual gold medal at the European championships.
Nick Skelton and Apollo won the individual bronze medal that August, ahead of a pack of other top horses, including Deister, Flambeau C and Towerlands Anglezarke.
This major win, and their runner-up place to Canada’s Ian Miller and the giant Big Ben in the 1988 World Cup final in Gothenburg, paved the way for one of the best Olympic redemption stories.
Allez France
Even the most analytical sportsmen would agree that a degree of luck is vital and that only three individuals can win medals at the Olympics. The show jumping competitions in Seoul, held in late September, were based at Kwachon’s Seoul Gyeong-ma Gong-won arena, or the Seoul Equestrian Park.
Several Los Angeles Olympian veterans returned four years later, including Big Ben, Flambeau C (ridden by Durand’s teammate Frédéric Cottier) and the catlike Jappeloup.
Olaf Petersen was the course designer for the Seoul Olympics, and the final, held on October 2nd, saw the top 20 riders advance. Jack Doyle and Hardly were to finish best of the Irish in 20th place.
With his clear round on Nepomuk, Germany’s Karsten Huck went into a narrow lead over Pierre (0.25 time faults) and Ian Miller (0.75), ahead of a closely-bunched group of 13 riders on four faults.
Gold
In the decisive round, could there be another American thoroughbred double on the cards, after Touch of Class and Joe Fargis’s LA gold? Gem Twist, Frank Chapot’s home-bred thoroughbred, and Greg Best (USA) delivered the only clear round to finish on their opening score of four faults.
Olympic show jumping fences are works of art and Jappeloup and Durand soared over some of the most iconic designs to jump clear. Albeit with one time fault, to finish on 1.25.
It was all down to the last rider to go - if Huck jumped clear, Germany had the gold. His luck held until the second-last fence. Four faults. Durand and Jappeloup had just won gold.
Huck and Best then jumped off for silver, a fence down apiece, but Best had the faster time so took silver. David Broome and the Irish-bred Countryman and Anne Kursinski, with Starman, filled the greatest ‘if only’ just outside the medals place, in joint fourth.
Durand’s example from his two Olympic appearances is to dust yourself down, rebuild and then return four years later to win gold.
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Seoulmate: The Frenchman tied his Seoul gold medal on Jappeloup’s tack before their Olympic lap of honour.
The ‘Lucky dollar’
He had a powerful good luck token at Seoul. During the individual final course walk at Seoul Equestrian Park, US rider William (Bill) Steinkraus, a great fan of the French pair, sought him out.
“Steinkraus headed towards me and slipped it in my jacket pocket, a one-dollar [bill], folded in eight. ‘A lucky dollar,’ as we call it in America,’ to bring us luck! He wanted us to be Olympic champions.”
Unbeknownst to Durand, that same dollar bill was in Steinkraus’s jacket pocket when he won individual gold at Mexico with the ex-racehorse Snowbound.
Later at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he was part of the French TV commentary team, it was Durand’s turn to pay it forward.
“I had the urge to bring luck to a rider for whom I had a lot of sympathy and admiration. In accordance with the same ritual, I gave Rodrigo Pessoa the lucky dollar. This is the expression of my gratitude to a generous man and a remarkable state of sportsmanship,” he remarked about the son of his good friend Neco.
The good luck charm didn’t seem to work its magic in the Markopoulo Stadium after Baloubet Du Rouet’s eight faults in the first round of the individual final. A clear round edged them closer to the podium and, following Waterford Crystal’s subsequent disqualification, Rodrigo became the ‘lucky dollar’s’ third Olympic gold champion.
Tower backdrop
The French heroes continued their clean sweep of team medals: bronze at Seoul, silver at the 1989 European championships in Rotterdam, and then gold at the 1990 world championships in Stockholm.
There was another runner-up place result in the World Cup final at Dortmund in 1990, the same year as Durand rounded off a five-year unbroken run as the number one French rider (1986-1990).
The following year, the 16-year-old Jappeloup de Luze was retired. Fittingly, his contribution to French show jumping was celebrated in a special ceremony beneath a famous French landmark: the Eiffel Tower.
“With Jappeloup, I achieved numerous victories over 10 years. I learned to respect him and, more than that, I cherished him as my best and most faithful friend. Ours was such a noble and close union that we overcame fears and doubts together,” said Durand, speaking at the Paris ceremony.
As good if not better
Although Pierre looked forward to country hacks and a long retirement for Jappeloup, two months later, the legendary Selle Français gelding died in his stable from a heart attack.
Like several other riders in this series, Pierre Durand is convinced that Jappeloup’s carefulness and scope would make him as brilliant, if not even better, today, saying: “Objectively, I believe Jappeloup would still be highly competitive today, even though courses are ridden at a faster pace, and the number of competitive horse-and-rider combinations is greater.
“One of Jappeloup’s greatest qualities was his natural respect for fences. The obstacles he jumped in his time were very imposing and solid, which intimidated him slightly. Today’s lighter fences would not pose him any difficulty.
“Moreover, being very well trained, he would have had no trouble mastering all the technical challenges and distances between fences.”
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Family horse: Pierre and his daughter Lisa at home with Jappeloup
Sporting truth
The French anchorman retired from international show jumping in late 1992, having missed out on a third Olympics when his mare, Narcotique, went lame before Barcelona.
“Everyone belongs to their own era! But, honestly, I would prefer the 1980s and early 1990s, when sporting performance was valued more highly and remained the sole criterion for moving up the sporting hierarchy.
“Today, the financialisation of the sport creates discrimination based on money. Sport loses its essential values and its true meaning when it is diluted in a multitude of competitions and circuits where the best rarely face one another - except at the major championships and the Olympic Games, which remain the ultimate moments of sporting truth.
“And even then, for riders, priorities have changed under the tyranny of the world ranking list. I should point out that I stopped competing at the age of 37, largely for these reasons.”
d’Oriola to Durand
Durand continued to contribute to the sport, serving as president of the French Equestrian Federation (1993-1998) and, in 2008, becoming chairman of INSEP’s (National Institute of Sport and Performance Expertise) board of directors.
36 years after d’Oriola won individual gold at Tokyo, Pierre Durand matched his hero’s result. The pint-sized Jappeloup, usually wearing a double bridle with its brass clincher browband, and his stylish rider, in his navy jacket, are still among the most popular and distinctive images of the sport.
“I prefer to hold on to the memory of my era, when I had the great fortune to compete against remarkable partnerships, above all Milton and John.”
“Our legendary duels remain in everyone’s memory and, I believe, we wrote an unforgettable chapter in equestrian sport.”
By the numbers
1.6 million - cinemagoers watched Jappeloup within the first month of the movie’s release.
175 - centimetres. Or 17.3 hands. Big Ben’s height.
158cm - 15.2 hands-high Jappeloup.
74 - show jumping competitors from 24 countries at Seoul.
16 - Olympic show jumping medals won by France.
Five - French riders have won individual gold at the European championships: Pierre Durand (Jappeloup de Luze, 1987), Eric Navet (Quito de Baussy, 1991), Alexandra Ledderman (Rochet M, 1999), Kevin Staut (Kraque Boom, 2009) and Roger-Yves Bost (Myrtille Paulois, 2013).
Fourth - the French pair’s result at the 1986 World Championships in Aachen. Individual champion Gail Greenough (CAN) rated Jappeloup as her favourite horse after the final four riders - Nick Skelton and Conrad Homfeld were the other two - swapped horses in the deciding round. Skelton also nominated Jappeloup as the best horse, competed by another rider, that he’d ridden.
Three - World Cup final top-three results for Pierre Durand and Jappeloup: second twice (1988, 1990) and third (1985).
Two - Olympic Games appearances by Jappeloup.
One - $. That lucky dollar bill.
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